Cats prefer to dig in loose dirt. If you have a small area try placing some pebbles in the garden beds.

Pine cones also act as a deterrent as cats don't like the feel of them on their feet. So try adding some to your mulch & spread around flower beds to keep the cats away.

Depending on where you are, you could try motion activated sprinklers. However, this isn't recommended for Australia with our current drought. The use of sprinklers in many parts of Australia is prohibited.

Citrus is unpleasant to cats, so if the neighbourhood cats are zoning in on a smallish area, you could try putting orange, grapefruit or lemon peel in this area.

There are ultrasonic devices which are triggered by a motion sensor. These emit a sound which is inaudible to humans but able to be heard by cats. There is one available at GE.

Place netting on the ground, especially in areas where there is freshly turned over soil & or seedlings.

Chicken manure around established plants can also deter cats as they don't like the smell.

If you have a bird feeder in your garden, make sure it is hung up in a location which is difficult to get to for cats to reduce their chances of catching birds. Which could be what is attracting them to your garden in the first place.

There are many websites which recommend the use of mothballs as a way of deterring cats. This is something I absolutely wouldn't recommend as they are toxic to cats and humans. While a cat entering your garden & digging up plants is no doubt irritating, using harmful products as a way to solve the problem is not the way to go. There are plenty of safe & humane methods for deterring cats without having to resort to cruelty. So please don't use any methods which will harm the cat.

Oh to be rich enough to have a housekeeper so I could spend all day every day in the garden, come rain, hail or shine. Oh what a dream world I live in.

Citronella oil works well too, we had a cat coming into our walled courtyard at a villa we used to live in, and spraying on our sliding glass door , we sprinkled citronella oil liberally around the wall and hey presto no more cat after that for months! At least I think it was the citronella, maybe the tuna ratsack surprise I left about the place had something to do with it......... just kidding, but I sure felt like it everytime I cleaned that sliding door of cat pee.

Our vet suggested soaking some used (urine only) cat litter in water and spraying it around your fence. I tried sprinkling the litter itself but the neighbours cat couldn't care less.I have two cats of my own that I love dearly but this rotter is driving me mad. He comes over all the time, even onto the verandah and it upsets my indoor cat no end. The last straw was when I spotted him crossing my lawn with a huge skink dead in his jaws. They let their cats roam 24/7.

“Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Hans Christian Andersen